In the morning of June 25, 1950, 200,000 soldiers from North Korea led by Russian tanks crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. In very short hours, they crossed our defense lines and infiltrated into Seoul at 1:00 a.m. on June 28, which was only 3 days after the outbreak. ROKA could only retreat until they reached the southern border of the Han river. ROKA settled down there and re-grouped its forces.

US Army Command was established in Su-won on June 27 and General McArthur himself inspected the battle lines on June 29. UN Allied Command was officially established in Tokyo. The 24th division of US Army was urgently sent to Korea and ROKㆍUS combined operations started on the Keum-kang defensive line. However, the main forces of the enemy kept attacking along the Kyung-bu railroad. North Korean forces passed the Keum-kang defensive line on July 15 and on July 20, Dae-jon fell in their hands. By this time, the 25th division of the US Army and the 1st US Cavalry division, joined by ROKA and ROKㆍUS combined forces, formed a strong defensive line along the Nak-dong river. They fought against the enemy's powerful destructive attacks and hindered the enemy from passing the defensive line.

At the time of the In-cheon Amphibious Operation, ROKA started to counter-attack the enemy along the Nak-dong river. On September 28, ROK's capital, Seoul was returned to ROKA's hands. On October 1, ROKA started to march north and seized Won-san, Ham-heung, and Pyung-yang on 10th, 17th, 19th of October respectively. ROKA advanced to Hyesanjin near the national border of North Korea and Manchuria on November 24.

Unfortunately, ROKA soon had to retreat back to the south because unexpected Chinese forces had reinforced the North Korean forces. In January, 1951, a new defensive line along Pyung-taek, Won-ju, Je-chun, Yung-wol and Sam-chuk was formed and ROKA counter-attacked the enemy forces and headed north.

ROKA retook Seoul on March 14, 1951. Though ROKA was able to keep marching north to pass the 38th parallel, it stopped at the line connecting Gae-sung, Chul-won, Keum-sung and Go-sung because truce negotiations began on July 10, 1951. As a result, battles were limited to those areas along the 38th parallel.

Afterward, the character of the Korean War was mainly to acquire the high lands such as the Capital, Baek-ma, sniper mountain etc so that ROKA would have more advantages in negotiations for armistice. The Korean War which was a bloody war between one nation was at last over as the Korean War Armistice agreement was reached on July 27, 1953.

During the Korean War, ROKA sacrificed about 257,000 soldiers including 29 % of soldiers at the advent of ROK National Armed Force for national security. ROKA proved to be the ROK official government's armed force during the war especially when 4 million North Koreans (which was the half of total number of North Korean citizens) followed ROKA soldiers when they retreated south from the Chinese forces.

Also, when the Chinese forces executed human wave tactics, though it was difficult, ROKA protected millions of North Koreans during their retreat. ROKA let 10,000 North Koreans from Heung-nam pier and 10,000 from Sung-jin pier board on the ROKA transport ships. Also, starting with Baek-ryung and Myung-chun islands that the ROK Navy had acquired, ROKA saved 60,000 civilians in the West Sea region and thousands of civilians in the East Sea region. Through these refugee rescue operations, ROKA proved to be the "National Army".

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